Melo Photo + Video

They are just the worst. Save your money and hire someone else. We hired them for photography and videography for 2 days and this experience with them was just the worst I have ever had in my life. They require you to pay in full before they perform any photography or videography services. You don't get to talk to your photographer or videographer at all until the day of. Our photographer reached out to use a week before the big day. But our videographer did not and we didn't even know who he was until he showed up on our big day. On the first day we hired them for 4 hours. The videographer clearly did not want to be there and only stayed to record one hour of our tea ceremony and just left even though we paid for 4 hours. He failed to record so much of the events during the tea ceremony, specifically, the decorations outside, the exchange of gifts, the games the groomsmen played, the celebratory meal afterwards. More than 3/4 of the tea ceremony was never recorded. I made a complaint and they decided to give me 3 additional hours on our second day. The videographer did not even give us the mic that we had requested to ensure the speeches and communications were caught on camera. On the second day, a different main videographer came. He was 1-2 hours late, which made us lose that time for filming. The second videographer that came with him later was basically non-existent and did nothing. The photos we received were basically just raw edits with filters on them. They did not edit or fix them at all. When we were taking photos the photographer directed us to different spots to take pictures but there were people there in the background. In the final edits they didn't even bother to remove those random people out of the photos and just left them there. We requested so much edits which came back about a month later. Then our second photos came out and we requested a second set of edits, which we did not receive until 4 months later. And we only got the second edits back because I kept contacting them to see where our photos were. The second edits we received, they didn't even do half of the edits we requested. Now we have to wait likely 4 more months before we can even download our photos. It's just so ridiculous. The video that we were expecting to be cinematographic...was not. Basically all they did was just add a bunch of takes together and added songs. It was horrible and we had to request tremendous amounts of edits. We got permission from the church to have our dog walk down the aisle with our niece. The video completely cut our dog out of the frame so it looks like our niece was just walking with a rope. There were so many random footage included, it like they just added everything to take up space. Specifically, the groom had the video mic on his suit so he can be heard in the footage, especially for the vows portion. Our final video had so much random footage that should have been deleted and removed. There was footage of just a random spot in the church and you can hear the bride and groom making small talk to pass the time while the ceremony was going on, this should not even be included in this "cinematography video." I would never use them again and would never recommend them on anyone.

ByDesign was incredibly easy to work with! We had two photographers and two cinematographers for our wedding in October 2023. Each of them was so lovely and talented. The planning team was very responsive and sorted through any and all of our issues with ease. I highly recommend using byDesign!

This review is not based on the work of the photographers they were great. This review is for byDesign Photo & Film as a company. I have outline the key issues with this company: 1. They send photographer portfolios over for you to review and you have 48 hours I believe to reply with who you want as they are on hold during this time. The first round I selected someone right away and the project manager took 4 days to reply so the person was booked. The second time I replied within 5 hours and they ended up not being available dur to an error with their calendar. Why am I getting sent people that I cant work with? After the second time someone called me to let me know due to the continued errors on their end. 2. Lack of response, the project management team takes days (estimated 4-7) to reply, nothing is quick or helpful very high level/empty responses. The only response I was able to get is when you call in and complain about a delay in communication. 3. Something they don't tell you is that they do not promise a sneak peek and will not tell you if one will come or not.. so you just have to wait 8 weeks for your photos. 95% of companies/photographers give a sneak peek so you can see how the editing process is going (if its your style) and if you want to use them for your Thank You notes. 4. They have an excuse for everything. Only positive about this company is that they are prices reasonably but I guess you get what you pay for.

byDesign was easy to work with but I was quite unimpressed and disappointed with the final photos. The angle choice for a number of the pictures was questionable and my veil was completely bunched up in a majority if the pictures. When you're trusting the photographer to give direction and make sure details are in place, you expect that to be noticed and addressed. Even more so when there are TWO photographers.